Breadmaking-Standing Mixer vs. Food Processor

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Breadmaking-Standing Mixer vs. Food Processor

I seem to recall some book mentioning that the food processor is the very best for kneading bread dough. I make a lot of bread, and always use my Kitchenaid. (I did compare handkneaded to the Kitchenaid. If I kept the dough wet enough to get the crumb I wanted, the hand kneading was such a B**** that it lead to a lot of swearing, and the bread turned out the same.)

Since I just got a big food processor, I decided to make two identical batches, one with my Kitchenaid standing mixer, and one with a Cuisenart food processor.

It took much less time for the first knead- 2.5 minutes instead of 5, and the dough was much smoother, "window-paned" great. I rested each of them, added salt, then kneaded again, 2 minutes for the Cuisinart, 5 for the Kitchenaid. The processor dough was so smooth that the surface was glassy, like plastic. The Kitchenaid dough was the usual "baby's bottom" texture.

But after raising, shaping, retarding for 12 hours, then the final proof and baking, the two breads were identical. The Kitchenaid bread may have risen a little faster.

The biggest difference was getting the food processor clean- this took me 45 minutes. Some of the dough had crawled up the bowl shaft, into the inside of the dough blade, down the drive shaft, and around the base of the drive shaft. It was really hard to clean some of those areas, particularly inside the dough blade and where the drive shaft comes out of the motor.

I will never knead bread dough in the Cuisinart again.

But in the interest of fairness, what experiences do others have when using these tools?

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